Small States in the Modern World comprehensively assesses the different modes of adaptation by small states in response to the security and economic vulnerabilities posed by global change. It uses a diverse collection of case studies to explore the complexities of change and to place them in their temporal and geographical context. Issues covered include: • international security and economic vulnerability • small states in international organizations, including the European Union • Quebec and Scotland as autonomous nations but not independent states • different modes of adaptation including market liberalism, social concertation and the management of natural resources. These contributions from renowned authors show that small states need external shelter and internal buffers in order to cope with vulnerability. Although many of the responses are path-dependent, driven by historical legacies, there is scope to choose. This compelling discussion of adaptations of small states will prove invaluable to scholars in political science, international relations and regional studies, as well as policy-makers and in particular those working in small states and would-be states.
This book is a unique collection of high quality articles analysing legal issues with particular regard to small states. The small states of the world differ considerably in their geography, history, political structures, legal systems and wealth. Nevertheless, because of their size, small states face a set of common challenges including vulnerability to external economic impacts such as changing trade regimes and limited ability to diversify economic activity; limited public and private sector capacity, including the legal and judicial infrastructure; a need for regional co-operation; a vulnerability to environmental changes as well as a limited ability to engage with supranational bodies and the forces of globalisation. This is the first volume of an exciting and unique new series, The World of Small States. In this work, legal experts from small jurisdictions and those with a particular interest in legal issues facing small states explore inter alia ethics in small jurisdictions, legal education and the profession in small states, the challenges facing small states with mixed legal systems, the constitutional arrangements in small states, small states as tax havens, and intellectual property and competition law issues.
Theoretically innovative and empirically expansive, A Small State's Guide to Influence in World Politics sets out to become the new authority for the study of small states in International Relations (IR). The book's explanatory approach allows for a comparison of small states' situations and relationships across a global selection of some twenty cases in issues of international security, economy, and institutions. In doing so, it shows how IR's longstandingneglect of small states is a missed opportunity--not just for understanding small states but for developing better theories of IR.
A study of East Central Europe and its place in the modern world. Combining narrative with analysis, it presents the past and present of East Central Europe in the larger context of the political and economic history of the continent.
Comprehensive and timely, this Handbook identifies the key characteristics, challenges and opportunities involved in the politics of small states across the globe today. Acknowledging the historical legacies behind these states, the chapters unpack the costs and benefits of different political models for small states.
Agency, Security and Governance of Small States examines what seems to be a defining paradox of Small-State Studies: the simultaneous coexistence (and possible co-dependence) of vulnerability and opportunity related to small-state size. This book analyses small states within the framework of this apparent paradox. Traditionally, Small-State Studies has focused on three guiding questions: what constitutes a ‘small state’? What explains small-state influence in global affairs? Are small states truly vulnerable to security threats given the expansion of multilateralism and regionalism throughout the world? This book contends that new questions should be asked which recognise the important shifts in twenty-first century security paradigms, to better understand how some states deploy their smallness as a resource for agency in supranational contexts. By varying historical, geographical, security, and governance contexts, the book embraces a most-different-cases approach. The historical perspective is often neglected in Small-State Studies but contributes to understanding how small states have often, over time, transformed perceived insecurity into agency. By focusing on different world regions, the authors enable the comparative analysis of collective actions, and the creation and implementation of institutions for ‘common sense purposes’ within a geographical region. Of particular contemporary importance, the book includes contributions which contend with hard-security issues alongside other soft-security challenges. The comparison of case studies confirms that hard-security vulnerability and soft-security opportunities seem to be two sides of the same coin, which reinforces the book’s focus on small-state paradoxes, and raises the question of whether smallness can be considered the defining characteristic of governance in these countries. This book will have a broad appeal because of the different world regions it analyses. It will be of interest to postgraduate students, scholars, and researchers of international relations, security, sustainability, governance, development, and political economy, as well as Small-State Studies. The Chapters 4, 8 and 11 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. The publication of Chapter 4 as Open Access has been made possible by the Institute of History at the University of Luxembourg. The publication of Chapter 8 as Open Access has been made possible by Western Sydney University. The publication of Chapter 11 as Open Access has been made possible by the University of Hamburg.
The beginning of the 21st century witnessed an unprecedented expansion of the EU. Since the majority of new member countries are small, there is a conventional wisdom that the accession of these states has the potential to create challenges to the development of the enlarged EU. This book attempts to argue that this view may not be the case.
This book examines the security, defence and foreign policy choices and challenges of small states in NATO and its small partner states in the new security environment. The main aim of the book is to analyse how these states are dealing with current and emerging security challenges and how they might better prepare for these challenges. A special focus is on ‘new’ security threats and solutions, such as drones and hybrid warfare. Simultaneously, the book focusses on how small states are responding to emerging ‘old threats’, such as Russian aggression in its neighbouring states and increased activity in the North Atlantic. The book makes an attempt to answer questions like: How are the small states of NATO and its small partner states adjusting to the new geo-political and geo-economic environment? Do small states in NATO manage the tension between alliance commitments differently from small states that are not members of NATO? What are the core strategic interests of the NATO and non-NATO partner small states? The book is about the external dimension of inherent size-related difficulties in states and how small states compensate for their inbuilt structural weaknesses compared with their larger neighbouring states. One third of the member states of NATO are small and most NATO partner states are small states too. Small states frequently have a disproportionate effect on global politics and they are more often affected by global shifts of power, yet they have less resources available to address security challenges. The aim of the book is to enhance the understanding of the role of small states in the changing global international security environment. The book presents the theory of shelter (which is derived from the diverse and extensive literature on small states) and uses it to examine how small states respond to new and old security threats. Shelter theory addresses three interrelated issues of common concerns to small states: the reduction of risk before a possible crisis event, assistance in absorbing shocks in times of crises, and help in recovering after such an event. In short, shelter theory claims that small states need external shelter in order to survive and prosper. They are dependent on the economic, political, and societal shelter provided by larger states, as well as regional and international organizations.
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen documents the startling rise of the Arab Gulf States as regional powers with international reach and provides a definitive account of how they have become embedded in the global system of power, politics, and policy-making.
